Champions South Wilts have set a new ECB Southern Electric Premier League run scoring record.

Their towering 396-5 off a rookie and all too wayward Hampshire Academy attack on the Ageas Bowl Nursery Ground was by some distance the highest total.

It set the three-times champions up for a hefty 143-run win over the young county aspirants who have much work to do on their bowling.

South Wilts batsmen filled their boots as the Academy all too frequently pitched the ball either too full or too short – or, too often, down the leg side.

Line and length didn’t come into the equation as they conceded 32 wides and three no-balls and effectively gifted South Wilts six extra overs.

By the end of the fourth over – a 13-ball affair, which cost 25 runs – South Wilts were 51 without loss – and headed towards a huge score on a flat pitch with a fast outfield.

Eddie Abel (41), Tom Morton (30) and Steve Riddle (31) cashed in before Hampshire’s Sean Terry and James Hayward got to work.

Terry, anxious to get some meaningful middle time after injuring his arm in last week’s Second XI match against Middlesex at Radlett, scored 84 off 72 balls.

But it was James Hayward who lit up the afternoon with a scintillating hour-long display of improvisation.

He looked as though he’d swallowed an IPL and t20 batting manual as he launched the Academy bowling about with an audacious display of reverse sweeps, ‘ramp’ shots and slog sweeps, most of which breached the boundary rope.

If Andy Gorvin, in his debut match as Academy captain, had another six fielders on the park he wouldn’t have stopped the onslaught.

In all, Hayward hit three sixes and 11 fours in his unbeaten 117. He added 120 with James Hibberd (40) as SW marched to their record total.

To their credit, the shell-shocked Academy responded positively with the bat, replying with 253-5 – a score which included maiden SPL fifties for Brad Taylor (67 not out) and Organ (57 not out), who lifted the total from 125-5 to an eventual 253-5 (Rob Franklin 3-46).